This is the UK400 Club Rare Bird Alert highlighting all records of avian interest and published in association with Rare Bird Alert Pagers and utilising additional information gleaned from the Regional Birdlines, BirdGuides, local email groups and individual observers

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Monday, 15 June 2009

GOLDEN ORIOLES fledge young

At Lakenheath Fen RSPB, the pair of GOLDEN ORIOLES are still feeding young at the nest and are coming in about once every ten minutes with food. This is an excellent opportunity in which to see this beautiful species, of which only 3-5 pairs nest in the country now (photographed above by Josh Jenkins Shaw (top) and Richard Bayldon)

From the RSPB information centre, take the inside footpath (not the track that leads alongside the main fen) and continue parallel to the railway for at least 25 minutes (about 1.5 miles walk). Continue past the first two Black Poplar plantations until you come to the third and last one and about 10 trees from the far west end of the plantation, you will see an obvious area of flattened vegetation, from where the hanging nest can be observed (about 15 foot up in the Poplar)

Meanwhile, it has been another good year for returning EUROPEAN HONEY BUZZARDS, with at least 70 pairs back in suitable nesting territory. Birds can be seen displaying at a number of specially arranged Watchpoints, including those at Great Ryburgh and Swanton Novers (North Norfolk), Welbeck Park (Notts) and at Wykeham Forest, north of Scarborough (North Yorks), as well as at several sites in the New Forest (Hants).

About Me

I have been birding since 1969 but became obsessed with 'twitching' in 1974 and haven't looked back since. Have driven over 1.3 million miles in pursuit of rare birds in the UK, where to date I have recorded 588 species in Britain and Ireland. I also have a fascination for the Birds of the Western Palearctic, where I have currently recorded 880 of the 1,064 species ever recorded. I am widely travelled in North America, as well as in Africa and Asia, and have written at least 29 books on my chosen subject, including best-sellers ''Ultimate Site Guide to Scarcer British Birds' and 'Rare Birds in Britain 1800-1990'. Established the UK400 Club in 1981 to cater for the most obsessive of the British birding fraternity and now concentrate on online publishing, via the www.uk400clubonline.co.uk website. Record Birding achievements include recording 386 species in Britain & Ireland in 1996 and 627+ in the Western Palearctic in 2008